Word Around the Downtown Club Scene

Word around the downtown club scene is that Tuesday nights at Martini Ranch's upstairs space, the Shaker Room, may discontinue because of a lack of patronage. (The Shaker Room is usually open Wednesdays through Sundays, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.)

When attempting to talk to someone at Martini Ranch by phone and trying various extensions to club managers, I got the computerized phone message, "We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later," and it hung up. I went down to the club on 528 F Street and asked a bartender about this rumor.

"Nah," he said, "the Shaker Room is here to stay."

"I was there last Tuesday when Mark E. Quark was the DJ," a friend told me, "and there were, like, maybe four or five people up there all night. That's hardly a club scene. But who parties on Tuesdays anyway?"

Mark E. Quark has been on the local DJ scene for more than a decade; he specializes in "old skool" music.